Suppose former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich said that. What would
happen? Before you could say, "Jesse Jackson's next press conference,"
Gingrich would deny the remark, say he was misquoted and say it was taken
out of context, before finally apologizing.

Well, a national leader did make a similar remark. NAACP Chairman Julian
Bond, in a recent speech, said, "Republicans remade themselves as the white
people's party."

Yet in a typical national election, the "white vote" splits fairly evenly
between Democrat and Republican. Minorities and single women tip the scales.

As a percentage, far more whites vote Democrat than blacks vote Republican.
Blacks show more loyalty to a party -- in this case, Democratic -- than does
any group in America. Clinton's job approval rate among blacks hovers around
90 percent. So, the hypothetical Newt Gingrich remark, calling the
Democratic Party the "black people's party," would have been far more
accurate than Julian Bond's remark about Republicans and white people.

Oh, well.

But there's more. Bond gave a ringing defense of affirmative action,
stating that " ... affirmative action made the black middle class ...
affirmative action helped a third of all blacks."

Really.

In their book,
"America in Black and White," Stephan and Abigail Thernstrom show that the
black middle class existed and grew well before affirmative action.

Bond

Moreover, they point out that affirmative action did not accelerate the
growth of the black middle class.

And economist Thomas Sowell recently wrote, "Yet the rapid growth of that
(black) middle class began even before the civil rights revolution of the
1960s, much less the racial quotas and preferences that began in the 1970s.

The rise of blacks into professional and similar occupations was faster in
the five years preceding passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 than in the
five years following its passage."

Bond is, quite simply, wrong. But this blind belief -- no affirmative
action, no black middle class -- dominates contemporary thinking among
"black leaders" and many other liberals. This mistaken view explains the
almost pathological defense of big government and the indifference toward
the unfair middle-class tax burden. After all, but for government's
benevolence, where would blacks be?

Note that Bond says a third of all blacks owe affirmative action. Atlanta
Mayor Bill Campbell places the figure at 100 percent: "Everybody who's a
person of color in this country has benefited from affirmative action. There
has not been anybody who has gotten into college on their own, nobody who's
gotten a job on their own, no one who's prospered as a businessman or a
businesswoman on their own without affirmative action."

Now, no speech by a "black leader" seems complete without the obligatory
attack on Ronald Reagan. Bond said, "Then, Reagan removed government from
every aspect of American life. They attempted to destroy all the laws that
say America should be bias-free." Reagan removed government from every
aspect of American life? Hey, despite promises, the Gip couldn't even shut
down the Departments of Energy and Education. Social spending under Ronald
Reagan went up, not down.

And blacks started businesses at a rate faster than did whites, with the
pace of revenues exceeding that of whites. In 1981, the nation's poverty
rate stood at 14 percent. It declined to 11.6 percent in 1988, Reagan's last
year in office.

Republicans, the white people's party? Nearly half of all adults own stock,
either directly or through some investment vehicle like a 401-K. This means
that Americans of all races have a stake in strong, prosperous, growing
companies. Since Republicans tax and regulate less -- good things for the
corporate bottom line -- who is looking out for the little guy?

Despite the dastardly Reagan, the black middle class grew. What does this
say? It confirms Barbara Bush's remark, "What happens in your house is more
important than what happens in the White House."

So, Bond's pessimism is unwarranted. Worse than pessimism, however, is
wasted energy. The tough problems -- teen pregnancy, under-performing
schools, crime -- get slighted in favor of the gratifying (but ultimately
unproductive) kicking of Ronald Reagan and the Republicans.

The great black singer Joe Williams just died. Like many of his black
contemporaries, he toiled in relative obscurity until his mid-30s, never
reaching the status of other, white crooners. When asked whether he felt
bitter, Williams said, "A friend of mine once said that hate is too
important an emotion to waste on someone you don't like."